


The Silence Trials

by princelogical



Series: The Silence Trials [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sensory Deprivation, Violence, self destructive behavior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 02:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12266646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princelogical/pseuds/princelogical
Summary: Touch.





	The Silence Trials

When Roman is seventeen he’s taken to a normal doctor’s appointment. He’s taken before a doctor with a clipboard who tells him to open his mouth and stop breathing. Roman does as she asks and she pulls out a long instrument made of metal. She slides it down Roman’s throat and he tries not to breathe as she injects something cold into the back of his throat. Then he’s taken to a room, the door gets shut and locked, the lights turned off, and he’s left alone.

He stands up and knocks on the door several times until it turns into banging. No one comes. He opens his mouth to scream, but there’s nothing there.

The door doesn’t open, but an hour or so later, he hears a noise and as he crawls to the door, his hands land right into a neat little sandwich. He wants to throw it at the door and bang some more; he wants to demand answers, but he’s starving so he eats the sandwich then breaks the plate against the door when he’s finished.

Days go by- weeks. Months. Roman doesn’t know. Time goes by and Roman’s anger doesn’t burn away. It brightens each day as a plate somehow lands right beside the door and each day, Roman breaks it against the door until there’s a huge pile of broken ceramic that doesn’t go away.

Until the door opens one day and the light is so blinding that Roman jerks back, almost whimpering in pain. He hears a _thump_ and then the door slams once again. Roman stays back against the wall, listening to his erratic breathing until he braves up and crawls over to the door.

He realizes the erratic breathing isn’t him; it’s someone lying, sprawled out across the broken ceramic and shaking like a leaf. When Roman reaches for them they jerk back and he winces at the scraping sound of ceramic against the tiled floors. The person keeps jerking around, likely only to find themselves hitting more broken shards. For a moment, Roman actually feels guilty for his tantrums and with all his strength, he grabs the person from under their underarms and hoists them up over the mess and drags them to the corner as they kick and struggle and bite and do their darndest to prevent Roman from _rescuing_ them.

Roman lands them both into a corner and the person continues to try and wrench themselves away from Roman until they finally stop, leaning back against Roman with shuddering breaths. Roman wishes he could make a snarky remark. _Are you done?_ Or at least ask them who they are, but his vocal chords have still decided not to work with him.

The person finally grabs Roman’s arm tightly and he lets them- until they’ve pushed up his sleeves and are scratching into his arm. He jerks his arm away and the person reaches out and snatches it back. Gentler this time, they scratch and Roman realizes they’re trying to write something. With their stupidly _short_ fingernails that he can tell have never been taken care of in their lifetime. Likely because of years of chewing them down.

Funny how much can be conveyed without speaking.

The person scratches something down and Roman forces all of his concentration onto feeling every little bit of their motions against his skin. He comes up with something like this: _I’m Virgil. He. I’m terrified. Who are you?_

Roman takes Virgil’s arm and pushes up Virgil’s own sleeves (they’re extraordinarily baggy and thick), and places his own fingertip on the inner arm. After a frustratingly long amount of time, he finally manages to tell Virgil, _I’m Roman. He too. I’m pissed._

They don’t move for a long time and Roman gives Virgil plenty of time to collect himself, finally turning his shuddering breaths into deeper ones. Then Roman gets up and uses his foot to pile all the ceramic into a little heap, which he kicks in the corner. He paces the room, listening to the infuriating sound of Virgil chewing on his nails until the shuffling happens again and in place of the usual one sandwich is two.

He scoots the two plates over and he hands one to Virgil. Virgil sets the plate down beside him. Roman huffs in annoyance and grabs Virgil’s wrist. Ignoring the shaking, he scratches out, _Eat._ Virgil grabs his arm. _No._

After Roman eats, he throws the plate into the door again, this time for a whole new range of reasons. Still yet, he kicks the pieces into the corner, unwilling for someone to get hurt on them again. He walks over and sits down beside Virgil who sniffles. Roman cautiously reaches up and lays his hand on Virgil’s cheek. Damp.

He doesn’t know what to do, so he just lowers his hand and does nothing. Eventually, Virgil’s weight becomes dead and limp against his side. Roman closes his eyes, wishing that he was alone. He doesn’t like having to look out for another human being. Not only is it a burden, but- he doesn’t wish this fate on anyone.

In his dreams, there is sunlight. He’s laughing with his mom and dad; they’re on the beach. The water is such a bright blue and the sun is so blindingly bright that it feels deliciously good. Too good. Roman wakes up with a gasp and finds himself choking on tears and his stupid heartbeat in his ears. The darkness that surrounds him is just as confining as before.

Virgil is no longer beside him, but he hears someone shuffling in the broken ceramic, so he goes over and finds out Virgil is throwing the little pieces against the wall with bleeding and shaking fingers. Roman yanks him away and forces him to drop the broken shards onto the floor. He wants to yell; he wants to scream at Virgil to stop being an idiot and _hurting_ himself. But all he can do is shove him into the wall across the room and force him to eat the sandwich.

More time passes. Virgil and Roman only “talk” to each other when absolutely necessary, because it’s too frustrating to try and communicate by drawing on each other’s arms with their fingertips. Roman is pretty sure that when they finally get out of here, Virgil will forever have the imprint of _Eat_ on his inner left arm. And serves him right, really, because Roman has never met anyone as prepared for their end like Virgil.

Roman grows used to the sounds of erratic breathing, because Virgil is rarely breathing at a healthy pace unless he’s sleeping, which is so much rarer than it should be. Roman also grows used to the sounds of fingernails being chewed on and though he grows used to it, it still drives him bonkers, so sometimes he grips Virgil’s hands within his own until Virgil or he pass out.

Then the door opens again and someone else is thrown in and they don’t move a single muscle as the door shuts behind them. They don’t move as Roman and Virgil run over to them. When Roman reaches over to touch them, their muscles are rigid and tense. Roman runs his hands over their arms, hoping they’ll loosen up a little- prove that they’re real and not- not… not _dead_ , but they don’t loosen in the slightest.  

He traces his name and pronoun onto their arm and they finally prove their life by carefully and precisely tracing, _I am Logan. I am male._ onto both Roman and Virgil’s arms. Logan is somehow worse than Virgil, because he never relaxes, not once, and he doesn’t seem as open to touch as Virgil, so Logan keeps mostly to himself.

Roman finds three sandwiches upon the mealtime and unlike Virgil, Logan eats his, but Logan keeps his plate in the corner of the room. He does it every day until he has a huge stack. Finally, Roman walks over and takes up Logan’s arm into his hands and asks, _Why do u keep the plates?_

Logan replies, _I am tracking time._

Logan’s pile is at about 82 when the door opens again and another person is locked into the room. Logan is the first to run over to them and assess them over. With this person, it takes far too long to teach them how to use their fingertip to write on the other’s arms. But eventually they get, _I’m Patton. He. Nice to see you all._ Logan shudders beside him and Roman’s pretty sure it’s because of the useless and horrific pun.

Patton’s unbelievably kind, even in the silent, darkened hell. He gets Virgil to eat somehow; perhaps anything is really more effective than Roman’s methods, he supposes. Patton is able to get Logan out of his corner and with the rest of them. They just sit in a silent circle, knees touching, but it’s better than being alone.

And when Roman goes to throw his plate for what feels like the millionth time, Patton takes him up in a tight hug and Roman collapses into silent sobs, full of anger and fury. Patton holds him tightly and they sink to the ground and Roman almost feels all hope of escape leave him.

Then Roman decided he’s tired and he’s sick of this. So he sits by the door and _waits_. He waits impatiently for the stupid thing to open so he can give them all a piece of his mind. So he can beg for answers. _Why_.

When it feels like the doors will never open again, they finally do, and Roman snatches up a shard and lunges. The lights are so blinding, but he slashes the neck of the person who stood outside and they slap on to the ground. Roman misses colours. However, he realizes that he didn’t miss the colour of blood. He throws up as Logan, Patton, and Virgil run out of the room.

Sirens blare across the building. Roman takes in the sights; white halls with several little benches. It looks like a hospital. Normal. Roman wants to scream.

“Experiment 50 has been leaked. I repeat, experiment 50 has been leaked,” a voice yells through the intercom.

Roman looks at the three. He can tell who is who, shockingly. Logan is the one standing perfectly still, his glasses slightly askew as he looks around the room as if figuring out methods of escape. Virgil is the one wearing the huge, baggy, black hoodie with big black bags smeared under his eyes; his eyes remain affixed to the body as he shakes unendingly. And then Patton stares at Roman, his eyes worried and frightened behind his glasses as he fiddles with the bottom of his vividly blue polo.

Logan looks to Roman. “ _Do you know sign?_ ” he signs.

Roman nods. Virgil and Patton watch the hand gestures in confusion.

“ _I know the way through the halls. I memorized the path the doctors took me down. Follow me._ ”

Roman nods again and gestures for Patton and Virgil to follow Logan. Virgil stares once more at the body and shudders then scurries up behind them. Roman’s hand grips the shard even tighter in his left hand. They make their way down the hall. No one comes after them. It feels like a trap.

Sirens continue to blare. The voice continues to shout through the intercoms. “Experiment 50 has been leaked. Experiment 50 has been leaked. All personnel proceed to room 12.”

Logan stops in front of a large metal door marked _Exit_ in glowing letters. Logan looks around then pushes down on the metal bar and the door swings open. A gust of summer heat hits Roman in the face. A back parking lot.

Roman squints as the sun beats down on the four. They walk out and the door shuts behind him. Roman can’t hear the sirens anymore. He can hear the sound of cars on the highway just off of the parking lot. Birds tweet from up in the trees.

Virgil collapses onto the ground makes weird noises in the back of his throat; he’s probably crying. Patton crouches down and gently places his arms around Virgil. Roman stares at the sky, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. If he isn’t careful, he’ll cry too.

Logan moves up beside him. “ _We need to go in case they come after us._ ”

Roman doesn’t think they will, but he nods anyway. He looks down at Patton and Virgil. Patton meets Roman’s eyes and gives him a small smile. Roman gestures for Patton to stand and he does, gently pulling Virgil up with him. As they walk away from the building, Roman takes one last look back to the building.

He turns his head forward and doesn’t look back.

**Author's Note:**

> Idk how I feel about this. Lol
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated!


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